Mocktail Makeover
The Shirley Temple grows up
This summer, when the spirits industry convened for its annual Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans, the opening party had a twist. Celebrity bartender Julia Momose, of Chicago’s Oriel restaurant, was mixing nonalcoholic cocktails to kick off the event, a well-known booze-soaked bacchanalia.
Why the change?
In restaurants and watering holes around the country, something is happening at the bar. First came craft beers, then artisan cocktails. Now forward-thinking restaurateurs and bar managers are mixing up a new category of crafted drinks: nonalcoholic cocktails.
These aren’t the syrupy sweet mocktails of the past, and frequently— though not always—they go by a new name. “Spirit-frees” is Momose’s preferred term of art. Others label this beverage category as zero-proof drinks or soft cocktails. Whatever you want to call them, you can find them on the menu at an increasing number of bars and restaurants in New Jersey and beyond.
Something for Everyone
Brian McAllister, general manager at Spuntino Wine Bar in Clifton, brought the idea for a nonalcoholic drinks section with him from past hospitality jobs in New York City. “They are often a little ahead on the trends, and I noticed it happening more and more there,” he says. Over the past few years at Spuntino, sales for the nonalcoholic cocktails have gone up and up.
Spuntino’s nonalcoholic cocktail menu typically includes at least five drinks. Many are twists on classic cocktails, including the strawberry- basil mule, which McAllister says is among the most popular.
McAllister believes serving craft booze-free drinks is aligned with the restaurant’s goal of offering something for everyone, even those who don’t want to drink alcohol. And that’s a surprisingly large group of guests. In fact, roughly one-third of American adults have not consumed alcohol in the past year. Abstainers are a large, varied and often ignored group that includes designated drivers, addicts in recovery, athletes in training, strict adherents to a low-carb diet, pregnant women, those on one of the many medications that don’t mix with alcohol and members of religions that prohibit alcohol.
“We are a tapas concept. We have a 60-item food menu. There are gluten-free options, veggie options, truly something for everyone. Why wouldn’t that extend to the drinks menu?” McAllister says.
“I’d rather eat my calories than drink them.” —Leia Gaccione, chef-owner of South + Pine restaurant in Morristown
The Picture of Health
Health concerns are at least partially driving this trend. A recent study published in April in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that the current government-issued low-risk drinking limits, which allow one drink per day for women and two for men, may still put people at a markedly increased risk for disease compared to those who drink less or don’t drink at all. A growing body of research suggests that consuming any amount of alcohol increases a woman’s risk for breast cancer. And Millennials—the generation now driving trends—are more concerned about health and wellness than any generation before.
“People want a healthier lifestyle,” says Leia Gaccione, chef-owner of South + Pine restaurant in Morristown, when asked why she offers beverages like nonalcoholic sangria at her BYOB. “I am very conscious about what I eat and drink, from a health perspective. I wanted to offer a good alternative to soda, something refreshing and tasty without a lot of sugar,” she says.
Healthy and low-sugar drinks don’t have to add up to flavorless. If anything, the opposite is true. Cloying sweetness, similar to soda, is exactly what’s given mocktails a bad name. At South + Pine, they’re called “refreshments” and are made from bold, fresh ingredients that are all flavor, no corn syrup. The cucumber mint cooler, made from little more than the titular ingredients, is a mainstay and a diner favorite. “People love it. I love it,” says Gaccione. “I’d rather eat my calories than drink them.”
Gaccione thinks there’s another highly Millennial preoccupation behind the explosion of interest in nonalcoholic drinks: social media. Young people don’t want to be caught messy and drunk-eyed on Facebook or Instagram.
And then there’s the matter of online aesthetics, tending to the photo mosaic that represents your life online. A healthy, vividly colored beverage, glowing with vitamins and garnished with fresh fruit, is more eye-catching than a brown beer, and it sends a different message to the world about your values and even your identity.
Lifesaving Libations
The importance of changing drinking culture to make room for people not drinking alcohol goes deeper than the gloss of social media. Bill Elliott of Egg Harbor Township, co-founder of the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers, thinks that mocktails can even save lives.
He took up the cause of ending drunk driving after his son died in a drunk driving incident in 2000. Among the Hero Campaign’s many initiatives was last summer’s Hero-tini Mocktail Challenge. It was a cocktail competition among restaurants along the Jersey Shore. Each participant came up with its signature Hero-tini, then offered the drinks on the menu all summer to give designated drivers (the real heroes) something special and festive to sip and help them feel included in a night out.
Bar customers voted on their favorite—more than 300,000 votes were cast between Memorial Day and Labor Day—and finalists were named. Celebrity judges tasted the finalists’ drinks and crowned the winner, “The No-Jito,” made by Lauren Genova of Tomatoes restaurant in Margate. Inspired by the classic mojito, the No-Jito combined muddled lime and mint with blueberry puree, lemonade and club soda. “Judges said it was refreshing and tasted most like a traditional cocktail,” says Elliott.
Even a year after the contest, many of the participating restaurants have kept their Hero-tinis on the drinks menu to encourage the life-saving practice of using a designated driver. “It was all a lot of fun, but we didn’t do this just to have a good time. Drunk driving kills more than 10,000 people a year. The contest was a fun way of making a very serious point. You can go out, enjoy yourself, participate with nonalcoholic drinks and still keep yourself and others safe as a designated driver,” says Elliott.
“We are a tapas concept. We have a 60-item food menu. There are gluten-free options, veggie options, truly something for everyone. Why wouldn’t that extend to the drinks menu?” —Brian McAllister, general manager at Spuntino Wine Bar in Clifton
Cherry Bomb at Spuntino Wine Bar
Thinking About Drinking
For many, offering nonalcoholic drinks is part of the larger goal of changing the drinking culture in America and normalizing the choice not to drink alcohol in social settings. “Right now, if you go out to a bar, there is really only one comfortable choice, and that is to drink alcohol. Bartenders often don’t even treat you as an equal customer, and that makes it hard,” says Lorelei Bandrovschi, founder of the soon-to-open alcohol-free Listen Bar in Brooklyn, New York. A freelance copywriter by day, Bandrovschi plans to launch Listen this fall as a pop-up bar while she searches for the right real estate for her dry bar’s permanent home.
Bandrovschi isn’t a teetotaler. But she enjoys frequent breaks from alcohol. During one of her times of abstinence, she noticed how automatic ordering an alcoholic beverage is in many situations. She thinks we’ve been conditioned by media messaging and social norms to drink at certain times and in certain places. It’s a reflex outside the realm of conscious decision- making. “I noticed how much I was drinking without even thinking about it,” she says.
She hopes that Listen will be a bar not just for nondrinkers but for everyone to enjoy a night of connection without alcohol— and, of course, excellent nonalcoholic drinks. “We’re now in menu development, and I’m working with a number of great bartenders on recipes for nonalcoholic cocktails. It isn’t finalized,” she says.
Seedlip, a nonalcoholic distilled spirit based in the UK, will likely play a role in at least some cocktails, Bandrovschi says. Curious Elixirs, a bottled craft nonalcoholic cocktail brand based in the Hudson Valley, is another option she plans to stock. “Right now, we’re searching for a great nonalcoholic beer,” says Bandrovschi. Listen will follow in the footsteps of Sans Bar, a pop-up alcohol- free bar based in Austin, Texas, which got its start at the trend factory that is the annual South by Southwest festival.
For a variety of reasons, a number of drinkers are taking a hard look at the role alcohol plays in their lives. Restaurants in New Jersey and around the country are waking up to the fact that offering alcohol-free options isn’t just something a bar should do on request for pregnant women and designated drivers. It’s an essential part of good hospitality and great taste in 2018.
To learn more about the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers, visit herocampaign.org.
BARSTOOL ACTIVISM
One of the best ways to help create a safer, saner, more inclusive drinking culture is by visiting restaurants and bars that list equally appealing nonalcoholic beverages right on the menu, proudly alongside their boozy counterparts. Most bars and restaurants will happily create a mocktail on the fly, but printing them on the menu removes the discomfort a diner might have about making a special request and sends a message that everyone is equal at the bar. It also shows that those drinks went through the same recipe development and testing process as every other menu item and aren’t just an afterthought.
The following local restaurants are just a few that feature thoughtful zero-proof beverages. Don’t see any mocktails on the list where you like to hang out? Ask a bar manager. Starting the conversation where you drink about the need for alcohol-free beverages helps everyone, whether you personally choose to imbibe the hard stuff or not.
The Ebbitt Room
25 Jackson St., Cape May
609.884.5700
caperesorts.com/restaurants/capemay/ebbittroom
Listen Bar
Brooklyn, NY To find out about the first pop-up bar this fall, follow @ListenBaron on Instagram or sign up for the newsletter at listen.bar
Ninety Acres
2 Main St., Peapack
908.901.9500
natirarcom/ninety_acres
Porta
911 KingsleySt., AsburyPark
732.776.7661
135 Newark Ave., Jersey City
201.544.5199
pizzaporta.com
South + Pine
90 South St., Morristown
862.260.9700
southandpine.com
Spuntino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas
Clifton Commons, 70 Kingsland Rd., Clifton
973.661.2435
spuntinowinebarcom/Clifton
Talula’s
550 Cookman Ave., No. 108, Asbury Park
732.455.3003
talulaspizza.com
